CAVCON Meter

Samuraid · **Joined:** Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:18 pm **Posts:** 8

Cavcon up at 2.4 (from 2.2).

So here's a totally wild (and probably incorrect) estimate.
We know for a fact that the MOUL fund received a 100 euro donation, and during that time the meter went from 2.2 to 2.4. Assuming there were not a lot of other donations during that time (really wild assumption), then 0.2 of the month would be roughly 100 euro.

At the current exchange rate, 100 euro is about 130 USD. So 1/5th of an average month is maybe in the ballpark of $130.

Multiply it out, and we get $650 per month.

I realize this is likely a very wrong guess (especially since costs vary month to month, and it doesn't account for other smaller donations), but even if it's something in the vague ballpark, it gives us a slightly more defined goal. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find the basic monthly cost (EC2 instances, bandwidth, EBS, etc.) in the $600 to $800 range.

Just some food for thought. Take it with a grain of salt (or maybe a few.)

kemsil · **Posted:** Sat May 25, 2013 6:54 pm

This is very interesting subject. I have wondered how much money is needed to keep this going. To have an idea of how much is needed will make it more likely that I will donate. Thanks, Samuraid

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Sat May 25, 2013 8:18 pm

Cyan are in the process of (or may have completed) moving to reserved EC2 instances. From Chogon's post we can infer that there is more than one instance and probably at least three instances.

For a thought experiment, let's assume three instances, and let's also assume medium utilization: Since the vault is memory cached, I'd guess that MOULa uses at least one "high memory" instance, but assume that the other two are medium sized, standard instances. The cheapest of the Windows high memory instances is then $850 per year up front plus $146 per month or an average $216 per month combined. The standard instances are £320 per year plus $63 per month, or $90 per month combined. That points to a total of $216 + $90 + $90 = $396. You then need to add data usage on top of that at $0.12 per GB - take a wild stab at that and estimate 30,000 logins per month each using 20MB (=600GB) plus, say, 50GB on top for people making fresh installs gets you to about another $80 worth.

Total it up and take it to a round number, so call it $500 per month (the equivalent 'on-demand' instances would have cost about 50% more). Not a million miles away from Samuraid's estimate, but it doesn't account for any labor from Cyan. There's always some of that each month since at the very least we get server maintenance/restarts every three weeks (so in some months that will happen twice), but Cyan is never going to publically declare its internal rates (nor would anyone else for that matter). You can perhaps assume three people are involved and maybe multiply the downtime by some notional hourly rate, but you're still left with a complete unknown over the time spent dealing with account queries, unplanned maintenance, etc., so you might as well take another wild guess and say "Meh! $300" (or some other number of your own choosing). In some of the recent "troubled" months I could easily see the labor costs being considerably greater than the server leasing costs.

There's a lot of big assumptions in the above, so don't try to treat any of it as "fact" - it's just an exercise in estimation.

Samuraid wrote:

We know for a fact that the MOUL fund received a 100 euro donation

Not really - we know it was pledged, but that doesn't mean it was received before May 20th (the party was on 17th and the post by Nellie Bly giving the total was made on 21st), and we do know a few other people did make donations in the period. So really, we don't know anything as "fact" :wink:

.

Samuraid · **Joined:** Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:18 pm **Posts:** 8

Mac_Fife wrote:

Samuraid wrote:

We know for a fact that the MOUL fund received a 100 euro donation

Not really - we know it was pledged, but that doesn't mean it was received before May 20th (the party was on 17th and the post by Nellie Bly giving the total was made on 21st), and we do know a few other people did make donations in the period. So really, we don't know anything as "fact" :wink:

.

Whoops. I misread. Thanks for setting the record straight, Mac.

You made some good points about the server sizes and cost estimates, and Cyan's labor above and beyond on certain months would surely, as you pointed out, increase the monthly bill.

All in all, though, these rough wild guesses are more reassuring than anything, letting us know that the base monthly cost is not out of reach. I'm definitely going to try to set aside and donate this month.

Annabelle · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 3:07 pm

Samuraid wrote:

Cavcon up at 2.4 (from 2.2).

So here's a totally wild (and probably incorrect) estimate.
We know for a fact that the MOUL fund received a 100 euro donation, and during that time the meter went from 2.2 to 2.4. Assuming there were not a lot of other donations during that time (really wild assumption), then 0.2 of the month would be roughly 100 euro.

This is why I'm uneasy with the original thread made by NellieBly. Nice effort and surely nice intentions but giving out the total amount of "what explorers said they were going to give to Cyan collectively" (<---this is important, that's not money, that's a promise of donation which can be voided for a reason or the other) is rather a bit displaced.

Now I'm pretty sure a lot of explorers like you Samuraid thinks...oh well the CAVCON raised from 2.2 to 2.4 which is the SOLE donation of The Female Hood Passing the Hat campaign.

My donation was real. Converted in euro, I paid in USD... my donation was real :wink:

(enough said)

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:47 pm

Umm... First post in the thread says that the May Final CAVCON was 2.6 but the second post says 2.7. As a bit of a stats nerd, I'd like to know which is correct?

Shorahmin · **Posted:** Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:20 pm

As was mine --$100usd. Having been away for a long time, is there any new content? The other shards seem to be moribund.

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

There is no new content, only a few fixes and improvements introduced in build 918. The other shards are still very much alive, and we're preparing the next update for Gehn (which now has 3 high-quality fan Ages).

Lordly · **Joined:** Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:10 am **Posts:** 46

Lyrositor wrote:

Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.

Lyrositor wrote:

and we're preparing the next update for Gehn (which now has 3 high-quality fan Ages).

Glad you mentioned that about the high-quality aspect

Lyrositor · **Joined:** Sun Aug 08, 2010 2:14 pm **Posts:** 808

Lordly wrote:

Glad you mentioned that about the high-quality aspect

The general consensus is that those Ages are among the best-looking ones the Uru community has produced and which can be ported to MO:UL (or were made for MO:UL). Also, when I say "we", I do mean the Guild of Writers, not the Guild of Messengers.

dgelessus · **Posted:** Sun Jun 30, 2013 4:43 pm

Just wondering, will purchasing other Cyan games, like the iOS ones, affect the CAVCON?

AdamJohnso · **Posted:** Sun Jun 30, 2013 5:38 pm

My understanding is that CAVCON is an entity distinct from Cyan (for legal purposes). So buying Cyan games is unlikely to affect MOULa directly. More income could possibly mean that some Cyan employees could spend some time on small Uru related projects--such as content licensing or OS management, I would expect.

Bottom line, don't expect miracles from buying a few games, but don't let that stop you from promoting them either.

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Sun Jun 30, 2013 5:40 pm

I'll echo Adam:
I wouldn't think so. The retail games are Cyan's "real business" while you can maybe think of MOULa as more a "hobby". Part of the point of the Donation Fund was to keep "MOULa's" finances entirely distinct from "Cyan's" finances.

However, the healthier Cyan is from a commercial aspect then the greater the security of MOULa is, since a) it ensures that there's Cyan in existence to run it, and b) there's a greater prospect for Cyan to "donate" some time to supporting it (e.g. without drawing on the CAVCON money).

Shorahmin · **Posted:** Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:17 pm

Ok, thanks guys. I'm having trouble getting Gehn to run but I'll take that to the GOW site. But, one more time, I'd like to thank Cyan for the best games I've ever played.

Tai'lahr · **Posted:** Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:27 pm

Welcome back, Shorahmin.

CAVCON Meter

Who is online